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'>N THE FIFTY SEVENTH ANNIVERSARY OF AMERICAN 
INDEPENDENCE, 



BY GEORGE LUNT 



NEWBURY,rORT 
nBIJSIIED BY J G, TILTON, & B. E, HAL 

1833 






Nr.WBURYi'onT, July 5tii, 1833! 
Geo ROE LcwT, Esq. 

Sir : The Committee of Arrangements for llic celebration of the 4tk 
iust. in this town, re9i)cctfuily request a copy of tlie Oi-ation, pronounced 
by you on that occasion, for the press. 

With assurances of esteem, 
we are Sir, 

Your obedient servants, 

JACOB STONE, ) 

SAMUEL TJTCOMB, I ^ 
C. J. BROCKWAY, }. <^ommit 
JOHN N. WILLS. I """ 
F. V. NOYES, J 



TEE, 



Newburyport, 5th July, 1833. 
Gbntlemen of the Committee — 

I am happy to comply with your kind and polite request. If I have 
been able to add no new force to the sentiments appropriate to the day 
and the times ; it is my fervent wisii, that the performance may have some 
influence, however slight, iir cultivating those feelings which become every 
intelligent citizen of a great Republic. 
I am, Gentlemen, 

\v^ilh respect and esteem, 

Your obedient servant, 

GEORGE LUNT 
Messrs. JACOB STONE, 

SAMUEL TITCOMB. 
C. J. BROCKWAY. 
JOHN N. WILLS, 
F. V- NQYES: 






ORATION 



The birth-day of a people must always be a great and il- 
lustrious occasion. The heart, which is dead to the ordinary 
impulses of human feeling, at sucii a time will sivell with 
uncommon exultation. Thoughts, which do not generally 
suggest themselves, come thronging home to our bosoms. 
All that the past had of disaster is forgotten in the glory of 
its splendid recollections ; — all that the future may have of 
dread is overwhelmed in bright and beautiful anticipation. 
The aspect and condition of external things has undergone 
no revolution, but the man is wanned by new feelings, and 
awakened to unusual energies. Whatever constitutes the 
value and the exeellence of his rights becomes this day dear- 
er to the citizen and the man. However he may have been 
abttjrbed by private interests and private duties, he is wil- 
ling to forget them to-day, upon the grand theatre of public 
congratulation. However he may have been worn by per- 
plexing thoughts, his heart leapt; to-day, to meet and to thrill 
in the impulse oi' universal juy. However he may have min- 
gled in the conilicting passions, which agitate the crowd; — 
however he may have been in bondage to fear and a slave 
to care, — to-day, at least, he feels that he is free. He iias 
forgotten, perhaps, that he was born under extraordinary ad- 
vantages : tiiat while oUiers are groaning under all the com- 
plicated evils oj systems so rooted by time and use, — so in- 
terwoven with the mighty interests of the strong, that the 
weak may scarcely dare lo hope for relief j — so hemmed in 
and circum tested by j)rcjudice and power, that humanity 
trembles, lest the remedy slic offers may bring ruin instead 
oi reform ; — he has forgotten the security and comfort anij 
happiness of his own conditio!); that where others must bend, 
lie may; stand erect amongst the proudest; that tl\e iccp 



tfc cannot control Ins mind, nor ihc crosier ubrooato hiu 
conscience : that the sword cannot ravage his fields, nor le- 
galized oppression pollute his dwelling : that his privileges 
are recognized and obvious and unquestionable : his own by 
birth-right, but reclaimed and established by the blood ol 
his fathers : that he is lord of his own liberty by the heritage 
of nature and master of himself by the endowment of God ! 
— But to-day, if he think at all, he reflects that he stands up- 
on a free soil and surrounded by innumerable and inestima- 
ble blessings, and his soul is stirred and elevated by loftier 
emotions. The familiar things about him assume an aspect 
which cannot be estimated by the trampled and shrinking 
slave! The bright earth glows with fresher verdure beneath the 
tread of a freeman, and a more radiant glory shines for him 
out of the resplendent magnificence of heaven! Some such 
reflections as these might become the mind of the most ordi 
nary citizen of a free community : but the intelligent ob- 
server of human affairs will regard his condition with broad- 
er views and in a far nobler attitude. The present and its 
thoughts weigh heavily upon the heart of one; while the 
other will cast his glance backward upon the misty records 
of the past, or with still more curious interest forward into the 
deep abyss of the future. He is not content with the fleet- 
ing circumstances which are near and around him. lie 
compares his own era with the others which have vanished 
into the distant niariit. The civilized and the savage — Bar- 
barian and Scythian — bond and free — all come within the 
compass of his intellectual vision. The world — a grand and 
imposing spectacle, — unfolds itself before him. He fixes his 
eye upon the monuments of ages ! The thoughts, — the feel- 
ings — the deeds of human beings become subjects of his im- 
partial investigation. He speculates upon the theory of 
man ! The great ocean of time, — wonderful in all its as- 
pecis, — beautiful in slumber, terrible in tempests, — is rolling 
at his feet. He com})arcs all that has been with all iliut is — 
and thus learns to appreciate the c'laractcr of the present, 
and prophet-like, to behold some vision of the future. 

1 am aware how diflicuU it is to impart any nevv- interest 
to the themes ai>pro[)riale to this day. And yet, it is the in- 
dulgence of those reflections which become a freeman, — the 



^.Uiiiiestion of tliosc causes winch gained inm Uiis cnviabic 
distinction; of those recollections, which dignify his social 
position ; of those motives, which should lead him to regard 
the institutions of his country with fresh reverence, and to 
stand up manfully for their preservation; — it is these things 
alone, which can consecrate the day, and render it worthy to 
be had in perpetual remembrance. 

The age in which we live is destined to work an immense 
influence upon the moral and social condition of man. The 
mighty changes, which ithasalready wrought, have out-strip- 
ped the slow current of eighteen centuries. 13ut let us not 
arrogate to ourselves an undue importance. The revolu- 
tions to which I allude are taking place in the great family 
of human beings : but man, as he might always have been 
found in individual existence, has forever exhibited the same 
lofty endowinents,- — the same wonderful characteristics which 
are now becoming so much more general and extensive in 
their efficient operation. The world has not been left witii- 
out witnesses and examples of the glorious destiny of man- 
kind : and however ignorance and superstition and debase- 
ment may have brooded upon the many, like the dreams of death 
— there were never wanting some whose minds were animated, 
— whose energies w'ere aroused, — whose souls were alive to 
the noble and eternal purposes of human existence. While 
all else was cold and sad, their spirits have played, like light- 
ning, upon the gloomy cloud ; and when almost universal 
darkness has seemed to settle upon the face of nature, their 
minds have glittered like stars, through the portentous waste, 
to tell that the light of heaven and its hopes were yet there ! 
Neither should it be forgotten that the tendency of the great 
mass of mankind has always been towards improvement and 
reformation. However inelfeclual its elTorts may have been 
to secure the permanent benefit of the whole, still enough 
has been done from time to time, through all j)eriods of the 
world, to keep the sacred principle of liberty hi remem- 
brance and in being. Weak and powerless and almost dy- 
ing it may have oftentimes lain ; but it has been found ready 
to start, at every fresh impulse, into newer and warmer life, 
with an energy that deiied death and knew nothing of decay. 
But heretofore the progress of society has been slow and un- 



certain. The occasional elibrts of the few, for the good of 
the many, seem heretofore to have served little better pur- 
pose, than to connect one age with another, and to transmit, 
from generation to generation, thememory of principles, des- 
tined one day to encompass and elevate the world. Some true 
idea of liberty might indeed have blended itself with the 
beautiful speculations of the philosopher and the sage ; but 
they regarded it as a good almost too abstract and distant 
ever to be really enjoyed ; and the hero and patriot toiled 
rather under the pang of some temporary wrong, or to se- 
cure for their own country some temporary advantage, than 
with any just views of the grand theory of freedom— that 
general independence of mind and heart and soul,— price- 
less, beyond all estimation,— whose hopes flutter over the ut- 
most confines of human wretchedness and whose aspirations 
are boundless as the universe. But it was reserved for the 
master spirits of our own day to collect from all time and all 
experience, the full strength and wisdom of this ennobling 
principle, and to illustrate and enforce and disseminate it, 
until armed oppression may well tremble and shudder to tlie 
inmost fibre of its iron heart. 

Our own is decidedly the age of revolutions. Those events 
which once might have amazed and alarmed the world are 
now amongst the most familiar occurrences of the times. 
The change of a dynasty might once have been the occasion 
and the theme of contemporary history : and fierce and pro- 
tracted wars might once have founded themselves upon the 
distinction of a name : but our day only has seen throne fall- 
ing after throne, and empire crumbling upon the ruins ol 
empire,— and the mightiest political revolution so hastily 
following upon the footsteps of its predecessor, that the at- 
tention is at length exhausted by a succession of events, so 
strange — so rapid — so unexampled ! 

But we must not deceive ourselves into false opinion^' 
We look at things long past through an illusory medium. 
And while we contemplate those great transactions of his- 
tory, which stand out bold and prominent amidst the barren- 
ness of centuries,— vvc are apt to forget our own comjnirativc 
iittlcncss ;— to imagine that we are the actors in singular 
achievement?, and to wonder that events, so iamiliar to'our- 



selves, should evci have excited the uncommon admiralu , 
and astonishment of the world. We forget that we aie 
reaping the harvest of other men's labors: that they were 
the precursors and exemplars, whose footsteps vvc arc pur- 
suing : that what our own times have seen executed with 
ease, they commenced in difficulty and danger, and accom- 
plished only with extreme toil: that the way was untrodden, 
until they set up its way-marks, and the desert uncultivated, 
until they opened and fertilized it, step by step, with their 
blood. But if we would justly appreciate the objects and 
tendency of human existence, we must forget the distinctions 
of periods and people. We must remember that there is a 
universal bond of brotherhood between man and man. No 
matter, when or where he may have had his being : whether 
he stands with us to-day in the light of freedom, or grovelled 
ages ago, where its name was never whispered : no matter, 
whether he toiled and fought and died, in the vain anticipa- 
tion of seeing those glorious results, which our eyes have 
witnessed: no matter, whether he fell with Liberty at Chre- 
ronca, or saw it and was glad, when it welcomed our fath- 
ers to the battle-plain of Lexington : no matter, whether he 
perished in the dungeons of the Inquisition, or worships 
God, as he pleases, in his stately temples ;— no matter, 
whether his body slumbers under the ghastly ruins of an- 
cient superstition, or the fresh soil of a free land presses 
lightly on his bosom ; — civilized or savage, — high or low,— 
living or dead,— he is a member of the same human family. 
Wherever the sun-beams publish God's glory, or the liberal 
elements utter his bounty, they have found man the same : 
always an intellectual and a moral being, aspiring sometimes 
feebly and again more earnestly, towards the same high 
objects : actuated by the same motives, worn by the same 
sufferings, elevated by the same hopes, tried by the same 
temptations: now overborne by intolerable wrongs and anon 
nsmg and trampling upon cowardly oppression : travelling 
through earth with a struggling mind and a beating heart, 
and longing for heaven ! The sage who thought, and the 
hero who conquered, are all connected with us by innumer- 
able ties. The illustrious achievements of other days be- 
long to us rather than to them, for v^e enjoy their full influ- 



8 



once and harvest iheir coniplote fulfilment. All that has 
over bcc!i executed for the cjood of man, — all exalted enter- 
prise, — all heroic devotion, — all self-sacrificing fortitude, — 
every generous impulse of tiic affections and every lofty 
olTort of the mind, — constitute but one unbroken chain ol 
brilliant events, all tending to accomplish the same glorious 
and eternal end. If then we contemplate man in this inter- 
esting aspect ; as one great mass of human existence, press- 
ing constantly forward, under the direction of a benevolent 
Providence, to secure the ultimate happiness of the race ; — 
that happiness, which consists in a free intellect and the re- 
moval of every fictitious and unnecessary restraint from tlie 
bodies and the souls of men; — if we look at him in this rela- 
tion, hindered and checked, at times, in his career, but with 
a mind never totally paralyzed, and a heart never altogether 
broken, — like some single noble spirit, which misfortune 
may indeed stagger, but cannot subdue ; — if we consider all 
the illustrious actions of our predecessors, but as distinct 
pulsations of the same mighty heart : — every gallant stroke 
for independence, — every splendid example of magnanimous 
endurance and heroic martyrdom, — but as one grand series 
of connected causes, whose consequences have been accu- 
mulating, until they arc ready to spread over and refine and 
liberalize the world ; — with what thrilling interest shall we 
then regard the history of the past ! with what profounder 
emotions shall we dwell upon the character of the present 
and speculate upon the boundless prospects of the future ! 
It is thus, that the friend of his country, at whatever remote 
and obscure period he may have existed, becomes indeed 
the friend of mankind : that the great reformer has toiled, 
arid the great philosopher taught for all coming generations, 
and the myrtle-bough, that wreathed the sword of the patriot, 
thus lives and flourishes forever, in the beauty and the glory 
of immortal loveliness ! 

There is something inexpressibly cheering in the encour- 
agements which such considerations inspire. If there be 
any one who has desponded in his views of the progress of 
society, — let him take courage and hope from such reflec- 
tions. It is no new idea, that the men of this age were losing 
their individual and peculiar characteristics. But if it be 



Jndeed the fact, that it is owiog to the improved condUiou 
of human fellowship, — it is a noble and consoling thought, 
Men have commonly been considered as divided into dis- 
tinct races, and in the various nations of the earth, as sepa- 
rated from each other by innumerable fictitious atnd often 
absurd distinctions: but if the tendency of society be 
towards such a reformation ; if, as the individual sinks, the 
people rise ; — if, as light breaks upon the world and diffuse* 
itself throughout the vast expanse of the general mind'; — 
if those great principles, which have been, here and there, 
illustrated and defended, through every period of the world, 
are now beginning to be generally understood and valued 
and enforced ; — if those grand causes are now at work 
which are to raise not this class or that, not this nation or 
another, but the whole human race to its highest point of 
attainable equalization, — 'What new and ennobling views 
does it open to mankind, — and who would venture to with- 
hold from its career his most fervent and devout aspirations ? 
It is true, that perfect equality can never be attained. 
Heaven has not so ordered it. He who expects it, dreams, 
— and will never awake to its realization. It is equally im- 
possible and unnecessary to human happiness. But that the 
time is approaching, when men will lose their inordinate at- 
tachment to the trifles of a moment; and will regard with 
the same value the great things of existence : when igno- 
rance shall be enlightened, and hope come to all, and liberty 
go free :— Vv^hen anarchy shall be dissolved, and the oppres- 
sor cease : — when crowns shall lose their lustre, and swords 
grow dim, and superstition fall into eternal burial undes 
the ruins of her mouldering fabric : when a new and glorious 
day, — a day of light and knowledge and christian freedom,-— 
shall encompass the Universe :— it is no illusion — for the 
currents of life are tending towards its consummation, and 
the oracles of God are pledged to its fulfilment! 

A new era has already commenced. A new impulse has 
been given to the tide of time. The fountains of the great 
deep are breaking up; and a spirit of inquiry, not .easily sat- 
isfied and irresistible in its energies, is breaking, like a 
flood upon ancient prejudices and beating down the bul- 
warks of old opinions. Let us hope that it may be regulat- 
ed by a wise discretion ! Let us pray that it be governed 
3 



10 

by « decefjt'iovereiico; and that, in destroying what is use- 
fces, it sweep away nothing that is truly excellent;— and be 
fervently hopeful of its success. But it is not the diffusion 
of human knowledge alone, or all the countless blessings of 
fjumnn civilization, which can effect these wonderful results. 
The refinements of life corrupt as well as polish. They 
nourish in themselves the elements of their own dissolution. 
Their brightest glories are but the heralds of their own de- 
cay^ AM history instructs us, that human learning and wis- 
dom and skill, were never and cnnnot be the stable founda- 
tions and safeguards of ihe state: and that man's noblest in- 
stitutions must perish in the using, unless a divine spirit 
mingles with the debasing mass of human passions, and pu- 
rifies, elevates and controls. If it were not so, — the mighty 
empires of the old world might have been standing to-day. 
If it were not so, — Assyria might never have fallen ; nor 
Egypt, the seat of the Pharaohs, — the mistress of science, 
the nwther of arts, — the fountain of philosophy, the depos- 
itary of wisdom, — might not have sunk as she did into a 
gloom as palpable, as that which she once before felt, wheD 
she was encompassed with the,darkness of a seven-fold night. 
If it were not so, — the Median might have thundered in vairt 
Zt tfts gates of Babylon ; and the wild beasts of the desert 
"Would not now be rioting in her pleasant palaces : Rome 
jTD'ght still have stood, in all the simple and beautiful gran- 
deur of the old Republic ; and Greece might to-day have 
lifted her laurelled head, the wonder and the majesty of the 
world! They indeed perished ! But a temple was soon to 
arise upon their ruins, whose worship was to involve sublimer 
views of the destinies of our nature than their most exalted 
imaginations ever conceived, and whose foundations were 
eternal in the Heavens! The revolutions of the ancient 
■world had been hurried forward by the impetuous tumult of 
mortal passion. But it was no profound sense of man's ob- 
ligations to his fellows, — no lofty conception of his account- 
ableness to his Maker, — no just appreciation of the dignity 
of his own nature, — which gave him wisdom in council and 
valor in the field! I know it has been said, that the object 
of Christianity was not tp disturb the political relations of 
life : that it eamc: not to build up or to dismember king- 
d^m.v^as> tlKUiglr Kwin's social condition were not a neccs- 



11 

sarv purpose of God's providence : — and I R-iiow ihai Its in- 
fluence in this respect was for a long period slow arid inci- 
dental in its operation : but as firmly us I believe the 
principle of immortality to be the very essence of our be- 
ing; — rooted in our breasts and inseparable from our exist- 
ence — and intimately and forever associated with every 
earthly as well as heavenly interest, — so firmly do I believe 
that it is about to exercise a direct and immediate and victo- 
rious influence in accelerating the progress of human soci' 
ety towards happiness and perfection. So will it have its 
perfect work ; — so will it exemplify its sovereign dominion ', — 
so will it enter into the deepest recesses of mysterious 
thought, — will disencumber it of that worst of all servitudes, 
bondage to error and superstition and vice, — and unfold all 
the sublime capacities and exalted attributes of a free intel- 
lectual and moral nature. And, if it has hitherto been con- 
sidered as instructing man simply in his higher thities and 
filling his mind with immortal hopes, — it will at length 
be discovered, that whatever juster appreciation he mav 
have entertained of his civil rights owes its ennobling origin 
to the liberal spirit of the gospel ; — that whatever brighter 
light may have risen upon his social obligations caught its 
first bright beam from the star that shone over Galilee! 
The destiny of man until tluit time had been obscure : his 
purposes feeble; his intellect bounded; his aspirations un- 
certain ; his energies confined ; his very existence apparent- 
ly to terminate with a day ! But the triumphant paeans of 
the illustrious host which, on that night, filled the amplitude 
of nature with their songs of rejoicing, proclaimed to man 
that lie was a freeman ! And the mild radiance of that 
sweet star, if it has awakened nobler anticipations of the 
blessedness of heaven, has equally and shall forever shed 
newer glories on his pathway through earth. The gospel 
came, and man felt that he was free! No longer the slavo 
of debasing thougiits, the range of his intellect was unlimit- 
ed as the universe. In mind and body and soul he was en- 
titled to be free! His faculties were no longer enchained. 
He was no more the slave of doubt and under the yoke to 
dismay. No earthly authority could control his endless 
hopes. In the prison, he felt that his soul, at least, could 
overleap the barriers of oppression. At the stake, his heart 



12 

whispered that he was soon to rise above all principalities 
and powers ! Creation's object, he was higher than nobles! 
The heir of Heaven, he was superior to kings! He knew 
that his fellows were created with the same endowments — 
•inheritors of the same privileges, — destined to the same 
end: i.'iW^d it neutralized the distinctions of rank, and tote 
off the glitter from pomp! He had been instructed in a 
theory, which equalized mankind, — and why should he be 
allured by false splendors, or awed by fictitious and illusory 
magnificence ! 

This then was the first great revolution : the source and 
epring of all others, which have very materially affected the ex- 
ternal as well as inward condition of man. Let it be owned, 
that, for many ages, its pure and noble spirit was scarcely re- 
cognised ! Let it be acknowledged that, after the first glorious 
onset, the day again seemed lost. Let it be granted, that it 
slumbered for fifteen centuries. If it slept, it was not the sleep 
of death. Its day of trial was not accomplished. Its hour of 
triumph had not arrived. The fullness of time was not yet 
come. It was silently to interweave itself with the history of 
ages. It was gradually to become the familiar friend and com- 
panion of life and to instil itself gently and imperceptibly into 
our profoundest confidence and our deepest affections. The 
grand principles which it inculcated were to accumulate power 
and veneration and love, until it was ready to ride forth in glory 
to conquest and dominion. If its standard ever wavered ; it 
rose again and again and forever, over the shock of war. 
There was always a soft light melting itself into the gray dawn, 
that gave sure promise of the coming morning ;— amidst the 
darkness of the night, there were flashes here and there, full of 
foretokens of that approaching storm, which was to purify and 
enliven the distempered atmosphere. — It came at last in the 
torrent of the Reformation. The world had long been prepar- 
ing for its advent. Men were beginning to shake themselves 
free from the corruptions of barbarism. They were beginning to 
■acquire some just ideas of their inalienable privileges : tliey were 
beginning to understand how they had been wronged in their 
dearest rights, — how they had been oppressed and trifled with 
and deceived ; and if Luther had never hurled his defiance at 
the thrones of kings and at the still more terrible throne of pa- 
pal supremacy, — men must soon have roused themselves : they 



15 

must soon have insisted upon understanding the truth ; and 
God would have raised up his own instruments to have re- 
lieved them from their absurd and bitter thraldom. 

I confess, it has seemed to me a fair inference from history, 
that a profound religious sentiment, under the enlightening in- 
fluence of the Preformation, has associated our intellecJiit and 
moral qualities into much stricter alliance, and given a stronger 
and wider developement to the higher capacities of our nature : 
and, while it has deprived it of all unfounded pretension, has im- 
parted a real dignity, which it never before exhibited, except 
under very peculiar and unusual circumstances. The condition 
of the people, during the middle ages of the world, had been 
wretched to the utmost extent of human degradation. They 
were held down by an iron hand, I might well say, with an iron 
foot, — for their very necks were trampled in the dust. Violence 
recognised no law, but its own inordinate rapacity : strength as- 
sumed to be the sole standard of justice, and credulous fear, 
shrinking into its own v/eakness, trembled and believed ! But 
the Reformation, while it taught men to think and act for them- 
selves, inspired their minds with rational notions of human lib- 
erty, and exalted their opinions of the vast capacities and the in- 
estimable value of human knowledge. It was these sentiments, 
burning in their hearts, like living flame, which were preparing 
England for the great and singular spectacle, which she was 
soon about to exiiibit. The whole surface of society was 
changed. Every element, which could agitate, was at work in 
its bosom : and one great mind came rapidly up after another, 
to the investigation of acknowledged dogmas, like wave after 
wave, beating and thundering upon the shores of the boundless 
sea. They received nothing in the faith of ot'ier men's opinions. 
They arrogated to themselves an unheard of independence of 
soul. They assumed an insatiable spirit of inquiry. They med- 
dled with topics heretofore forbidden and carefully concealed 
from their research. They cavilled at principles, whose sacred- 
ness had indeed depended only on the general ignorance, and 
assaulted strong-holds, which were strong only because their 
weakness had never before been demonstrated. They boldly 
advanced to the discussion of opinions, which had before been 
handled with the utmost reverence. They began to examine 
into the tenures rather than the names of their rulers. It was 
not whether they should pay homnge to the Tudor or the Stu- 



14 

art; not whether the asphing blood of York, or the still more 
aspiring blood of Lancaster, ran in the veins of the heir of king- 
doms; — but whether the sove;-;ign himself was or ought to be 
more than tlie permitted chief magistrate of a Free People. 
They scrui)led not to scoff at hierarchies, and finally questioned 
the divine right of kings, with arguments sharper than any rhet- 
oric. It was these thoughts and feelings which nourished the 
illustrious spirits of England's great days, and laid the founda- 
tions of a Revolution, reserved for another soil than her own, 
and destined to be considered, as I think, the second grand 
crisis in the affairs of man. It was this which made them less 
careful of success, than determined to pursue the right. It was 
this which animated the sagacious eloquence and devout ferven- 
cy of Pym : the intrepid mind and strong heart of Hampden ; 
the profound skill, the stupendous talents, the victorious enthu- 
siasm of Cromwell, — great, indeed, if he had never reigned: 
the republican virtues and magnificent intellect of Milton, — en- 
grafting the graces of the christian upon the stern simphcity 
and lofty temper of heroic times : — the noble genius and stead- 
fast integrity of Algernon Sydney — a part of whose lofty senti- 
ment, written in voluntary exile at the summit of the Alps, when 
he thought his country unworthy of his presence, our own Com- 
monwealth has adopted as the motto of its arms — 

Manus ha)c, invicta tyrannis, 

Ense petit placidam sub libertate quietem : — 
u man, worthy of the best days of old Home, — ready for the un- 
just martyrdom which he suffered, and deserving another Plu- 
tarch to record his history. It was the same mighty and uncon- 
trollable spirit, which inspired the compeers and friends of these 
great names, the pilgrim founders of a new world, — those apos- 
tolic men, who came upon a mission unexampled since the era 
of the apostles : who left their pleasant homes, — pleasant if Free- 
dom had dwelt there, — all that binds us so closely to kindred 
and country, — the familiar voice and aspect of our friends, — the 
valley we have wandered over, — the hill-top we have climbed, 
the very trees and sun-beams, that will not look so pleasant in 
another land; — who left old England, — 'merry England,' — 
fuller than other countries of beautiful and splendid recollec- 
tions ; — who dared the savage, the winter and the storm ; — who 
stood, ' young men and maidens — old men and children,' upon 
rocks where the ice only glittered, — the clear cold heavens above, 



15 

(• , 

the rolling waters below, and around them, the desert solitude 
of untrampled snows, — dauntless and undismayed, witli strong 
hearts and clear minds, trusting in God, rejoicing that they 
were Free ! 

It was the good seed sown by these men which at the dis- 
tance of a century and a half afterwards, produced so boun- 
tiful a harvest. It was their hatred of oppression — their love 
of liberty, — their veneration for virtue, — their estimation of 
knowledge, the ennobling sentiments which they cultivated 
in themselves and transmitted, in purity, to their descendants, 
which, at length displayed itself in the Great Instrument which 
you have heard read to-day. It was these causes, acting upon 
high minds and resolved purposes, which followed up that 
unexampled Declaration with all its brilliant and sublime con- 
sequences : — which drew men of all ages and conditions 
away from their peaceable pursuits, to maintain their princi- 
ples with blood, whose voice shall cry forever in the ears of 
their children! 

The history of the American Revolution is yet to be writ- 
ten. Its momentous conflicts, — its heroic sacrifices, — its gal- 
lant achievements, — its transcendanl result, may have alrea- 
dy been detailed. But its moral history has not yet been at- 
tempted. Ten thousand revolutions had indeed hurried 
over the world. Brave and noble spirits had often before led 
men to victory and freedom. But the success of one splen- 
did moment the next wrested from their grasp. For who 
could secure liberty to the grovelling beings, who knew not 
the value of its priceless possession ? Who could hope to 
found its elevated temple in the heart of the willing and sat- 
isfied slave .'' Many a revolution has succeeded our own. 
And Poland might say, how nobly, but in vain, she struggled 
in the grasp of the gigantic and ruthless despot : and France 
might tell, how she worshipped at the shrine of a false Deity, 
till she was scorched to the very heart, by the flames of his 
altar ! But here — upon this soil, — in that struggle, the hearts 
of the people were as the heart of one man : — for it was not 
for conquest, not for ambition,not for the world's glory ; — 
but for peace, and happiness, and religion, — for a free mind 
and an untrammelled conscience, — for all things that are 
dearer than blood and better than life, — that they fought 
and triumphed ! Their souls were prepared for the sacred 
conflict, and they dreamed of no failure. The unparalleled 



16 

events of that gieut period are now acting upon the world* 
Many a gallant struggle has since been commenced, which 
caught its first impulse upon the plains of New Eno-land. 
Many a bright flame has since ascended to Freedom, which 
was first kindled upon the green hills of our native land. It 
is a flame that is inextinguishable. It is the cause of truth 
and freedom and light, — and it must prevail. The great 
principles, which that age defended and established, have 
ever since been spreading, with silent but irresistible activ- 
ity, into the extremes! nations 'of the earth. They are now 
shaking the deepest foundations of European Society. But 
if this grand reformation, whiH^ seems everywhere collect- 
ing its energies for the mighty contest is finally to prevail : — 
if the great battle is to be won — of human improvement 
against bigoted prejudice, — of equal rights against arbitrary 
oppression, — of justice against violence, — of light against 
darkness, — its leaders would do well to remember the sacred 
energy which animated our fathers — and that they owed 
their unexampled victory to Virtue, which is Power and Truth, 
which is Eternal ! That although they drew their swords to 
resist the tyranny, which was galling their own necks, — they 
felt that they were contending not for themselves alone, 
but for all future time. We may conceive some of the feel- 
ings which inspired Prescott, Putnam, Stark, and the good 
men with them upon the eve of that first momentous conflict. 
We may conceive a youthful and gallant spirit, like Warren, 
on the morning of Bunker-Hill, — full of devoted courage and 
generous enthusiasm and about to pour out his life-blood for 
his country, — thus inspiring the hearts of his compatriots : 

We stand here for freedom ! — It is no dream of the imag- 
ination, but a glorious possession beyond all price ! Life 
becomes worthless when it-is lost. Let us win it or die ! It 
is a high gift of God ! Let us not betray it ! By his strength 
we will conquer ! Our iiomesare upon the issue ; — our moth- 
ers, — our sisters, — our wives, — all that we love — demand of 
us victory ! Our fathers rejoiced in the anticipation of this 
day. Posterity requires us to defend its inheritance. The 
world is regarding our actions. Heaven smiles benignantly 
upon true hearts. The enemy is many, — but they are slaves : 
we are few, — but we are freemen ! Be not dismayed ! It 

IS THE CAUSE OF MaN J THE CAUSE OF LiBERTV LiBERXT 

iiow — Liberty forever ! 



